Mountain Youth Marks 25 Years of Supporting Eagle County Young People

Mountain Youth, the Edwards-based nonprofit that has worked with young people and families in Eagle County since 2001, is marking 25 years of service this fall. The organization will celebrate on Thursday, Nov. 5, with an evening event called Forging Connections, listed from 5:30 to 8 p.m. on the Vail Valley Partnership calendar, where Mountain Youth says it will celebrate 25 years of serving youth and families and look ahead to the next 25, with speakers addressing ways to incorporate health and wellness into everyday life.

The mission of Mountain Youth is to continuously and collaboratively improve the lives of youth in the most powerful ways possible.

Mountain Youth, organizational profile, ColoradoGives.org

Mountain Youth was founded in 2001 to facilitate cohesion among youth service providers, according to its ColoradoGives profile, and builds its work on the Positive Youth Development framework throughout the Eagle River Valley. Its programs include substance use prevention, safe driving education, youth advocacy and family education, with locations in Edwards and Eagle.

Data first, then programs

The organization says it draws on data from the Healthy Kids Colorado Survey, which it describes as the largest data assessment effort administered every two years to middle and high school students, to develop social norming campaigns and its intervention and prevention programming. Its youth arm, Valley's Voice, brings together young people who are passionate about creating change in their community.

For parents, caregivers and other trusted adults, Mountain Youth runs Eat Chat Connect and Aprendiendo Juntos, which it calls its bilingual behavioral health learning series, and We Hear U, a program it describes as a safe space for families, and to which its homepage points readers looking for support on setting boundaries. In 2023 and 2024 it added the intervention programs We Hear U, Prime for Life, aimed at preventing high risk behaviors, and Guiding Good Choices, which equips parents with skills and strategies, and it says referrals are being accepted. Its published program list also includes Life Skills for Students and Communities That Care.

The anniversary season also puts Mountain Youth in front of donors: the organization is listed on ColoradoGives.org ahead of the Colorado Gives Day campaign, where its profile records the same 2001 founding, an Eagle County service area and youth development among its categories.

Safe driving, in two languages

Its safe driving work walks new drivers and their parents through Colorado's Graduated Driver Licensing laws, with information published in English and Spanish. The organization, also known over the years as the Eagle River Youth Coalition, lists locations on U.S. Highway 6 in Edwards and in Eagle, and a post office box in Edwards.